Soft robotics are inspired by animals which don't have hard internal skeletons, like squid, worms, and starfish. Developed at Harvard, with funding from DARPA,
this particular soft robot, "not only walks, it knows several different gaits and can deflate to stuff itself through tiny little gaps."
Another design here,
and another (
also),
and another. In addition to movement, soft robotics can also be used
for grip. More information about the Harvard lab is available
here (
with a student describing the research here).
posted by codacorolla
on Nov 29, 2011 -
26 comments
"This is a subject of but small importance; and I know not whether it will interest any readers, but it has interested me."-
C. D.
Quick... what was Darwin's most popular book? If you answered The Origin of Species, you were wrong. It was his last book, published the year before he died, The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms With Observation of Their Habits (
illustrations [
first presented 1 Nov. 1837, as noted in the record of the Royal Geological Society]).
Darwin noted when he was beginning his career that worms churned up soil, causing heavier objects to sink slowly in the soil. He noted that all soil had passed through the alimentary duct of worms. It started off a fashion of cultivating worms by gardeners that continues to the present day. -We recently
learned that we owe an element of our unique cerebral cortex, or pallium to our marine worm ancestors. (
In amphibians, the cerebrum includes archipallium, paleopallium and some of the basal nuclei. Reptiles first developed a neopallium, which continued to develop in the brains of more recent species to become the neocortex of mammals." [&, ultimately, you and you and we]) [more inside]
posted by infinite intimation
on Dec 30, 2010 -
11 comments
10 years ago yesterday, The
ILOVEYOU or LOVELETTER computer worm successfully attacked tens of millions of Windows computers in 2000 when it was sent as an attachment to an email message with the text "ILOVEYOU" in the subject line.
Mefi Was There that day when Onel De Guzman released a virus that he had proposed creating as part of his undergraduate thesis.
The BBC Looks Back. The key part of the virus was not any technical trick but the wording of the subject line - ILOVEYOU - and its attachment LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.
posted by Blake
on May 5, 2010 -
28 comments
Worms in your fresh fish? We've heard about them in sushi for years, but stories are on the rise of creeping condiments from supermarkets. The FAO says they're actually
not uncommon though "worms are unsightly and consumers naturally object to their presence". One
theory holds that they're on the rise due to cost-driven onshore processing. Icked-out consumers have been posting videos on YouTube
1,
2,
3,
4,
5, while others have sought
solace in discussion
forums. But the good news? Cook
thoroughly and you'll be safe. Me, I'll be sticking to enchiladas.
posted by crapmatic
on Oct 2, 2008 -
71 comments
About 15% of the average American's household waste is compostable. Even apartment dwellers can turn their potato peelings and coffee grounds into gorgeous, nutrient-rich plant food with the help of
worms. You can even
buy the little dudes online!
Once you have your worm farm set up, the big question is
"Can I compost this?" You may be surprised at how often the answer is,
"Yes!"
posted by freshwater_pr0n
on Oct 27, 2007 -
48 comments
This video from the online New England Journal of Medicine of live parasitic worms scurrying around the inside of a patient's colon was not nearly as sexy as I thought it would be after reading the description.
warning: link goes to nonsexy new england journal of medicine video of live parasitic worms scurrying around the inside of a patient's colon
posted by jonson
on Apr 7, 2006 -
60 comments
Ascaris lumbricoides. According to estimates, about 1.5 billion people--about a quarter of the earth's population--are hosts to the
Ascaris lumbricoides parasitic worm. Ascaris worms can grow to be 18 inches in length, and use their host's windpipe and esophagus to migrate between the small intestine and the lungs. A single human host may support dozen of large worms, which can be contracted by contact with fecal matter, animals, or undercooked pork. Under some circumstances (the worms dislike anesthesia, for example) one or more worms may exit from the mouth (
a horrifying image), or the anus (
one of the most disgusting images I have ever seen, and not safe for work, obviously). Here,
the removal of a worm is caught on video (Realplayer).
Too disgusting to post? Almost. But 1.5 billion people have got these in their bodies right now. That's what's grosser than gross.
posted by washburn
on Mar 4, 2006 -
96 comments
A worm that builds a home inside the human body, lives there happily until breeding time, then begins a journey to emerge from the skin and find a body of water to lay its eggs in. Although this may very well be a pleasant journey for the worm, for the human, it's an excrutiating one. And so we begin
The Tale of the Guinea Worm.
posted by Space Coyote
on Jun 14, 2004 -
9 comments
Up to 20% of the internet vulnerable to a virus. There is a new Linux worm virus. Apparently, it steals passwords, installs and hides other hacking tools on infected systems, and then uses those systems to seek other servers to attack. Sys admins are advised to run a check on their servers and upgrade their BIND version.
posted by borgle
on Mar 25, 2001 -
5 comments
So called Gnutella-worm.... So, I'm sure one or two of you have seen press coverage of the supposed spread of a set of vbs-worms, through the Gnutella community (Napster without a centralized server for those who don't know what it is). I have to agree with the Gnutella-folks statement, that this is more an exploit of windows and user-foolishness, than anything technically skilled. What's interesting to note is that it seems to be having a chilling effect...usually there's somewhere around 5,000 hosts, and 10 Terabytes of data online...today, there's barely 1100 hosts. I would have thought the average gnut-er was smarter than to fall for a vbs-worm.
posted by nomisxid
on Jun 5, 2000 -
1 comment
